Chap. 230.—An ACT to amend and re-enact an act to provide for the opening,.
altering, changing, and working the public roads in the county of Warren,
approved February 18, 1886, to provide for the working, repairing, opening,
altering, changing, and building of the public roads, bridges, ferries, and
landings in Warren county, Virginia.

Approved March 15, 1906.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, ‘That chapter one.
undred and forty-eight of the acts of the general assembly of Virginia of
ighteen hundred and eighty-five, eighteen hundred and eighty-six, pages
ne hundred and forty-seven and one hundred and fifty-three, entitled
‘an act to provide for the opening, altering, changing, and working the:
mblic roads in the county of Warren,” approved February eighteen, eigh-
cen hundred and eighty-six, be, and is hereby, amended and re-enacted
» as to read as follows:

$1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That there is
iereby established for Warren county, in this State, a board of roads.
erries, bridges, and landings, to be known as the road commission. The
atid road commission shall consist of the county surveyor, who shall be
x-0fficio a member of said commission, and one member from each
nagisterial district of said county, to be elected as hereinafter provided,
v the people of each magisterial district. The members of said com-
nission, except the county surveyor, shall be residents of the several
nagisterial districts in which they are elected: provided, that the first
‘oad commission under this act shall consist of N. S. Waller, from the
rront Royal magisterial district: J. B. Earle, from the Cedarville magis-
erial district ; S. D. Boyd, from the South River magisterial district, and
lesse T. Funk, from the Fork magisterial district, and the county sur-
‘evor, who shall hold their offices from July first, nineteen hundred and
ix, until January first, nineteen hundred and eight, until their sueces-
ors are elected or a vacancy occurs, whitch vacancy may be filled as pro--

50
vided in section two of this act; but before entering upon the duties of
their office, the said members, except the county surveyors, shall qualify
and give the bond provided for in section three of this act.

$2. The election of the members of said road commission shall be on
the first Tuesday in November, nineteen hundred and seven, and every
two years thereafter, and said members shall enter upon the duties of
their office on the first day of January next succeeding their election, and
shall hold their office for a period of two years, unless removed or a va-
cancy otherwise occurs, in which case another person may be forthwith
appointed by the circuit court of said county, or judge thereof in vacation.
to fill said vacancy for the unexpired term.

§3. Each of the elective members of said road commission shal] quality
on or before January first, next following their election before the clers
of the county court of said county, and shall enter into and acknowledze
a bond before said clerk in a penalty of not less than five hundred dollars
or more than one thousand dollars. Failure of any member to qualify
and give bond as aforesaid shall vacate his office. Such bond shall be
made payable to the said county, with condition for the faithful discharge
of his duties. A recovery on any such bond shall be for the benefit of the
road fund of the district from which said member was elected. At the
time each of said members qualifies, he shall take an oath before the
clerk of the court that he will fully, faithfully, and impartially perform
and discharge all of the duties required of him under this act and by the
road commission, of which he is a member.

$4. Each of the commissioners, including the county surveyor, shall
receive such compensation out of the road fund as the board of super-
visors of said county shall provide, not to exceed two dollars nor to be less
than one dollar and fifty cents for each day of ten hours actually em-
ploved: and provided, further, that no commissioner shall receive over one
hundred dollars per annum.

$5. The road commission shall have the right to use the clerk’s office
of said county, or any office which shall be assigned to it by the board
of supervisors of said county, for holding its mectings, transacting it<
business, and keeping its records therein. No commissioner, except the
county surveyor, shall hold any other elective office during the time he is
a member of said road commission.

$6. The said road commission shall elect from its members, its presi-
dent, secretary, and such other officers as it may deem necessary to have
and make its own by-laws; a majority of the commission shall constitute
a quorum, and have power to perform all the duties required of it under
this act: records and accounts shall be kept of all its proceedings, and
copies of all its estimates, and soforth, for the cost of opening, establish-
ing, altering, working, repairing, and maintaining all public roads.
bridges, ferries, and landings, in each magisterial district of said county.
for the succeeding year, and an itemized report of work done, and by
whom, and money expended and to whom paid, and upon what bridges.
ferries, landings, and roads, giving the number of miles, and the amount
¢xpended in each magisterial district during the preceding year, shall be
made to the clerk of the board of supervisors of each county at leas
twenty days before its annual meeting.

$7. Any one or more of said road commissioners, with the approva
of the commission, may, when necessary, employ a competent enginee!
to assist him. His compensation to be agreed upon by the commissior
(eforehand, and payable out of the funds of the district employing him.

$8. Application for a new road or bridge, or to change or to discon-
tinue an existing road, or any part thereof, shall be upon the writter
application of at least five freeholders interested therein; said application
shall be addressed to the chairman of the board of commissioners, stating
the location, direction, and length of same, setting out the names of the
landowners to be affected, what damage, if any, they ask, whether any
vard. garden, or orchard will have to be taken, and the probable cost of
the work proposed. ‘The said commission, as soon as practicable, shall,
with the county surveyor, view the proposed route or site in accordance
with said application. In case of an adverse decision thereon, such fact
shall be endorsed upon the application, and a minute of it entered upon
the commissioner’s order book at the next regular meeting, and said
application so endorsed shall be filed with the papers of that meeting.
In case of a favorable decision thereon, they shall return to the clerk’s
otice of the county a written report and a diagram of such route, site,
change, or discontinuance, a minute of said report shall be recorded at
the next regular meeting of the board of supervisors in a book to be kept
for said purposes. An itemized cost of the view in either case shall be
filed with the papers.

$9. Such favorable report shall be deemed a condemnation of the route
site, or change described therein for the purposes named in the applica-
‘ion from the date of filing said report; and upon the construction and
acceptance of any such change of route, it shall operate as a discontin-
nance of the former road to the extent of such change, unless the said
report otherwise directs.

$10. Immediately after receiving such favorable report, the clerk of
he board of supervisors shall direct notices to all the landowners or
enants, stating the damages awarded them, respectively; which notices
he sheriff of the county shall promptly serve as the general law directs.
similar notices shall be likewise given to the landowners adjoining any
oute to be discontinued. At the next regular meeting of the board of
upervisors, provided fifteen days has elapsed since the service of the
foresaid notices: and provided, further, that a majority of the said
ard of supervisors are in favor of making the expenditure necessary to
lo the work proposed, a final order shall be entered, setting out all these
acts and directing the clerk to issue the necessary warrants to the land-
wners for the damages awarded them, and then directing the work to
roceed in the manner prescribed by this act; or, if it be a discontinuance,
hat the same shall then become operative.

811. No irregularities or informality regarding the notices, reports,
nd orders, nor as to the time they should be returned or recorded, shall
perate as a discontinuance of the application, but proper amendments,
orrections, and entries may be made according to the fact, upon such
erms as to costs and discontinuances as may be fair and proper.

$12. The board of supervisors, upon the consideration of the commis-
sion’s report, may hear any legal evidence offered in behalf of the lanc-
owners or the applicants, or that they themselves desire, and 1n estimatin:
the damages beyond a fair price for any land actually taken, they shal!
fully consider any compensating advantages resulting to the landowner
from the construction of the work proposed, and in the final order, may
alter the route or site as proposed or named in the application or com-
mission’s report and make such modifications, restrictions, and change:
as in their judgment would better tend to improve and protect the work
proposed and give the best service and safety to the travelling public.

§13. The action of the board of supervisors in the premises shall le
final: provided, however, that any person deeming himself aggrieved b
its final order may, within thirty days thereafter, appeal therefrom as 3
matter of right to the circuit court, or the judge in vacation, upon a ques
tion of law or upon the amount of damages.

§14. Whenever any member of the board of supervisors is intereste:
in the work proposed in an application, the other members of said board
shall decide as to the same. And whenever any member of a district
road commission is interested in the work proposed, some other member
or members of the road commission shall act in his stead.

$15. Before viewing, the applicants, or some one for them, shall de-
posit with the clerk of the road commission a sum sufficient to pay tx
cost of said view and report. For their services the officers shall receiv:
the following compensations—namely: Each member of the road com:
mission viewing, two dollars per day; the sheriff, thirty cents for servin;
each notice; the clerk, for entering minute of adverse report and tiling
papers, or for recording favorable report and filing paper, twenty cents.
and for each notice of damages, fifteen cents.

$16. All damages for land taken under this act, for the construction
of all new bridges over the Shenandoah river and approaches theret:.
and the expense of keeping in repair all said bridges and approaches here-
tofore or hereafter built, shall be paid for out of the aggregate districi
road funds of the county.

§17. The road commission shall have general supervision and control
of the working and keeping in repair the public roads, bridges, ferries.
and landings, in said county, and shall sce that each commissioner shal!
severally, properly build, construct, work, repair, and maintain all the
public roads, bridges, ferries, and landings in their respective districts.
and to this end each commissioner may hire, furnish, equip, and supply
necessary forces of hands, teams, and material, for the working and
repair of each of the roads and bridges in his district, and if he deems
best, place the same under the supervision and management of compe-
tent foremen, or may with the written consent of the road commission.
entered of record, let the same to contract to the lowest responsible bid-
der. (The several districts shall, respectively, pay for changing or dis-
continuing any road and for the costs of the view when there is a favor-
able report, and for working and keeping in order ul] the public roads that
are now, or may hereafter be made therein.)
$18. Any road commissioner, with the approval of the commission
entered of record, may erect and maintain, out of his district road fund,
upon any public road in his district a bridge: provided, its costs will not
exceed the sum of two hundred dollars, and that the expenditure will not
interfere with keeping the roads in said district in proper order during
that vear.

$19. Whenever the road commission, with the approval of the super-
visors, have determined to build a bridge, to make or change a road, which
will cost over two hundred dollars, and not more than two thousand
dollars, the road commission shall advertise at least twenty days for
sealed bids and proposals, reserving the right to reject any and all bids.
And on the day named they shall meet at the courthouse and publicly
open the same, and with the consent of the board of supervisors, award
the contract, unless all bids be rejected, to the lowest responsible bidder.
The contract shall be in writing, but shall not be executed by the road
commission until the successful bidder has executed a bond with good
security. payable to Warren county, in a penalty double the amount of
his bid, conditioned that he will faithfully perform all work to be done
on his part in a first-class, workmanlike manner, and said contract and
bond be approved by the board of supervisors.

$20. Whenever the cost of any such road, including damages for the
land taken, and the cost of a bridge, including its sub-structure and ap-
proaches and damage for the land taken, exceeds the sum of two thousand
dollars. no contract shall be entered into until the regularity and the ad-
visabilitv of the expenditure in the premises and the location thereof be
approved by an order of the circuit court, or the judge thereof in va-
cation.

$21. Should no responsible bidder be accepted to make or change a
road under section twenty of this act, the road commission, with the con-
sent of the board of supervisors, shall then employ labor and construct
the road proposed, the work to be paid for monthly by the district where
work is done upon the usual warrants drawn upon the county treasurer.

$22. Each commissioner shall furnish to said commission an itemized
list of all the tools, implements, appliances and machinery, etc., needed
for the construction, working, and repair of the roads in his district, and
said road commission shall provide, furnish the same, and certify the
itemized account therefor to the board of supervisors, who shall, if cor-
rect, draw a warrant payable to the party furnishing the same, out of the
district road fund for which the same was purchased, and the treasurer
shall pay said warrant out of said district road fund, and said commis-
sioner shall annually account for the same to said road commission, which
shall keep an inventory thereof and account annually for the same to the
board of supervisors of said county, and at the expiration of their sev-
tral terms of office shall account for and deliver the same to their suc-
cessors in office and take an itemized, written receipt therefor, which re-
ceipt shall be recorded in a receipt book kept for the purpose by the clerk
of said road commission.

$23. Each commissioner by and with the consent of the road commis.
sion, shall have the power to contract and be contracted with, as herein-
before set out in section eighteen as to the roads, bridges, ferries, and
landings within his district, and may sue and be sued, but no judgment
against any member shall bind him personally, but shall be paid by the
treasurer out of his district road fund.

$24. The Commonwealth’s attorney shall represent the board of super-
visors and the several road commissioners, and may be paid therefor a
reasonable fee out of the road fund.

§25. All roads or parts thereof hereafter made shall be thirty feet
wide, without gates, and the grade thereof shall not exceed three degrees,
except at points where the conformation of the ground is such as to make
that grade impracticable or the expense excessive. But at such places it
inay be constructed so as not to exceed five degrees for a distance not ex-
ceeding fifty yards.

$26. The board of supervisors of said county shall annually levy the
road tax, provided for in Pollard’s Virginia Code, annotated, nincteen
hundred and four, section nine hundred and forty-four a, subsection
twelve, and as therein provided. All taxes levied and collected for road
purposes and for building and repairing bridges, shall be expended on
the roads, bridges, ferries, and landings in the district from which said
tax is collected, except that so much as is necessary to keep in repair the
bridges now across or may be built across Shenandoah river shall be paid
out of the entire agercgate district road funds of the county.

$27. It shall be the duty of each commissioner to cause the roads in
his district to be made and kept cleared, smoothed of rocks and other ob-
structions, of necessary width, secured from falling timber or earth,
crowned in the middle, well drained, and whenever necessary to carry
water across the road. it shall be recovered in boxes or culverts wherever
practicable, in order to remove, if possible, all humps and by-washes now
crossing the surface of the roads. 'To keep at all forks or crossings plain
sign-boards and across each stream a sufficient bridge, bench, or log for
foot travellers. They may take from the most convenient lands, outside
the right of way, so much wood, stone, gravel, or earth as may be neces-
sary, to construct or repair any road, and for the purpose of draining any
road, may cut a ditch through adjoining lands: provided, such material
be not taken from, and such ditch be not cut through, any yard or yvarden
without the owner’s consent.

§28. If the owner or tenant of any land from which material is taken,
outside the right of way, under the preceding section, shall think him-
self injured thereby, and cannot agree with the road commission as to
what is a just compensation for said materials, or for any damage done
said lands thereby. either party may apply to justice of the district, and
he shall summon three disinterested freeholders to view the land: and
after being duly sworn as other viewers, shall ascertain what, in the
premises, is a just compensation to the owner or tenant for the same; and
they shall report the same to the board of supervisors, who shall, at their
next mecting, provide for the payment of the same and the costs out of the
district road fund. ‘The summons shall fix the day for the view, and the
recholders shall have at least three days’ notice thereof. The justice and
1e Viewers acting under this or the next section shall each be paid one
ollar per day.

§29. Any road commission may, upon any part of a road traversing
ountainous or unenclosed land, or the beds of streams change the loca-
on of the road at such points in order to improve the grade, drainage, or
ifety of the same. And if the owner or tenant thereof think himself
ijured thereby and cannot agree with the road commission as to what is

just compensation therefor, either party may apply to a justice for a
ammons for three freholders, as is provided for in the preceding section,
ho shall proceed in the manner set out therein.

§30. All new roads, or changes therein, on work done, if made of earth
rincipally, shall be made (so far as the part that is made of earth is
oncerned), after the first day of April, and prior to the fifteenth day of
etober, in any year. Obstructions, falling timber, keeping drains open,
r macadamizing may be attended to during the winter months, as well
s at other times, if necessary and expedient.

§31. A day’s work shall be for ten hours of actual labor. Under any
ontract made by the board of supervisors for a bridge, or repairs to one,
r for masonry or for macadamizing (if for more than five hundred
ollars), there shall be reserved by the said board, as a guarantee for good
rork and material, not less than ten per centum and not exceeding
wenty-five per centum of the. contract price, for a period not less than
hree months, and not exceeding six months; and all damages and de-
iciencies shall be paid therefrom, and at the end of the time whatever
emains thereof shall be paid to the contractors entitled thereto: pro-
ided, the work is then found satisfactory.

$32. The road commission shall as soon as practicable cause a map or
‘iagram to be made by the county surveyor of the roads and bridges in
aid county, with such local names and places marked thereon as may be
ecessary to describe the same, which map shall be kept by the clerk of the
ommission.

$33. When public roads and bridges form dividing lines between mag-
‘terial districts the board of supervisors shall, by an entry of record.
livide such roads and bridges between said districts as they deem best,
nd the proper road commissioner shall then take charge of and work
nd repair them in accordance with said division, except the bridges
ross Shenandoah river shall be kept in repair by the road commission.

$34. The commission is hereby authorized to apply to the circuit court,
« to the judge thereof in vacation, for the employment by the road com-
nissioners of all vagrants and convicted criminals, confined in the county
ail, to work upon the county road. The labor of such persons, how-
ver, shall begin and be upon the first two miles of those main highways,
eginning at and radiating from the county courthouse; but this shall
int be construed to apply to any street or part thereof lying in the town
f Front Royal.

§35. No supervisor, or commissioner of road, or surveyor shall be
‘ither directly or indirectly interested pecuniarily in any contract made
‘ith the county, or any district under this act. And if it appears to the
board of supervisors or circuit court, upon the examination of such a
‘charge, that such interest really exists, they shall cancel the contract and
withhold all pay thereunder from the offending party, or, if already paid,
bring suit and recover it.

§36. After any road has been made, or changed, or discontinued, or any
bridge erected by the county in pursuance of this act, the proper road
commissioner shall report such completion to the next regular meeting
-of the board of commissioners and supervisors, and a minute of such facts
shall be entered upon their respective records.

§37. The board of commissioners are hereby authorized, at any regu-
lar meeting, to hear the motion of any interested citizen, provided a
twenty days’ notice thereof has been given to those interested; and upon
legal evidence, to discontinue any gate erected across any public road in
the county. And if damages are claimed by any landowner or tenant in
possession on account of said removal, then the road commission shal!
view the road, and report the damages, if any, to the next regular meet-
ing of the said board of supervisors and proceed as under sections twelve
and thirteen of this act. _

§38. The general road law of the State, not in conflict with this act.
shall be in full force in this county, and all special road laws heretofore
enacted for this county are hereby repealed.